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All religious groups have codes to guide the lives of adherents, but the Druze, Dr. Ruth tells us, are especially interesting. She has observed the Druze's special art of adjustment in all walks of life, whether religious or secular, and for all people, young and old. Their key is an ancient custom called a-takiyya. During times of communal stress, the Druze refrain from accentuating their religious identity, thus reducing the possibilities of conflict with neighboring groups and allowing them to concentrate on internal community building. According to Druze custom, they predate the Hebrew people in the area surrounding Palestine--particularly in Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. Thus, like many "...
The Triumph of Life is Rabbi Irving Greenberg's magnum opus--a narrative of the relationship between God and humanity as expressed in the Jewish journey through modernity, the Holocaust, the creation of Israel, and the birth of Judaism's next era. Greenberg describes Judaism's utopian vision of a world created by a God who loves life, who invites humans to live on the side of life, and who enables the forces of life to triumph over death. The Bible proclaims our mission of tikkun olam, repairing the world, such that every human image of God is sustained in the fullness of our dignity. To achieve this ideal, Judaism offers the method of covenant--a realistic, personal, incremental partnership between God and humanity across generations in which human beings grow ever more responsible for world repair. Greenberg calls on us to redirect humanity's unprecedented power in modernity to overcome poverty, oppression, inequality, sickness, and war. The work of covenant requires an ethic of power--one that advances life collaboratively and at a human pace--so that the Jewish people and all humanity can bring the world toward the triumph of life.
Bringing together leading Jewish historians, anthropologists, sociologists, philosophers and liturgists, Between Jewish Tradition and Modernity offers a collective view of a historically and culturally significant issue that will be of interest to Jewish scholars of many disciplines.